23 Chait, Kathmandu. After being appointed as the Prime Minister, Balen Shah formed a 15-member cabinet a week and a half ago. As there are currently 22 ministries, the government has made a strategy to merge them by giving some ministers the responsibility of two ministries that have similar areas of work.

After the formation of the government, the Council of Ministers prepared a 100-point action plan. It is mentioned that the number of ministries will be reduced to 17 under the title of ‘Administrative reform, restructuring and austerity’ of the action plan.

Since the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supply has been kept by itself and the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers Office have also been given the same roles as ministries, it seems that the government has put together the ministries that can be adjusted and given the responsibilities to the ministers.

In the action plan to reduce the number of ministries within a month, it is mentioned that ‘the posts should also be managed’. For that, the government will create a restructuring management secretariat.

It is mentioned in the action plan that the secretariat, which will be in the office of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers, will perform two tasks. First, the promotion of employees will be managed without affecting service delivery. Next, the same secretariat will also make a ‘transition roadmap for service continuity’.

With the government planning to reduce the number of ministries, the number of secretaries will also be drastically reduced.

Currently, there were four secretaries in the Prime Minister and Cabinet Office apart from the Chief Secretary.

There are posts of secretaries in Nepal Trust, Public Procurement Monitoring Office, Vigilance Center and others under the Prime Minister’s Office. There are also posts of secretaries in agencies with a very small scope.

There are two secretaries in the Ministry of Finance to look after finance and revenue, while there is a separate post of secretary in the office of the Comptroller General under the Ministry of Finance. In health, the secretary was managed to look after health and administration.

Apart from Ministries, various commissions, agencies and constitutional bodies have more than one secretary. There are also posts of secretary in bodies like Water and Power Commission, Authority, Election Commission, Public Service Commission.

There are four secretaries each in the Auditor General’s Office, the Attorney General’s Office and the Federal Parliament Secretariat. A deputy secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office said that the review of the posts of the secretaries of the bodies under the executive branch will be given priority over these bodies.

Now, only one of the two ministries that will be merged during the job cuts will remain as secretaries. It is certain that the number will be reduced from ministries that have two or more secretaries. There is also a preparation to review the posts in the agencies that are not necessary for the secretary.

Prime Minister Balen Shah’s Policy, Administration and Good Governance Advisor Sudip Dhakal says that a committee has been formed on the plan to reduce the number of ministries included in the 100-point action plan. He says, ‘The committee has been formed and it may be working. No more information has been received.’

will decrease, ministries

On November 7, 2080, the government amended the division of labor regulations and there were 22 ministries, all of them have a secretary system, now with the reduction of five ministries, at least five secretaries will automatically be reduced.

Sources from the Prime Minister’s and Council of Ministers’ office say that the number of secretaries in Hachuwa’s house will not be reduced immediately. According to sources, four secretaries are retiring by the end of next June.

According to the secretary reduction strategy, no one will be appointed in their place when the posts are being reduced. It will affect the joint secretaries who are waiting for the promotion of the secretary for some time, some of them will retire due to the age limit of 58 years without being a secretary.

What will be the structure?

Currently, there are 63 posts at the federal level and 70 secretaries including chief secretaries in seven provinces. The chief secretaries working in the provinces are also from the federal civil service. Apart from them, there are four officials of the 12th level in the health service, similar to the secretary. According to the current vacancy, the number of joint secretaries is around 650.

The government has not yet fixed the posts of chief secretary to secretaries. According to the 100-point action plan, the now formed ‘Restructuring Management Secretariat’ will make the rest of the blueprint. Apart from that, the Niyamati Bill, which will be submitted to the Federal Parliament in a few months, will also determine many forms and standards of personnel management.

It might work, that report

It is often questioned that the number of employees in the federal civil service is more than the requirement. There are also questions about increasing the posts of secretaries for various interests.

Three years ago, after a similar question was raised about the number of secretaries, the government formed a committee to review the number.

In 2079, the committee formed under the coordination of the then Secretary of the Prime Minister and Cabinet Office, Lakshman Aryal, suggested to reduce the number of secretaries and to arrange additional secretaries in the place of secretaries and joint secretaries in some places.

According to the report of the committee, the number should be reduced from the ministries that have two secretaries. Currently there are two secretaries in the Ministry of Industry, Agriculture and Livestock, Health, Education as well as Science Technology and Energy.

The committee said that the number of secretaries should be limited to 50, additional secretaries should be arranged to make 80 additional secretaries and the number of joint secretaries should be limited to 628.

He suggested to reduce the posts in some commissions where secretaries are unnecessary and hire additional secretaries. And it meant arranging for additional secretaries in agencies other than ministries that have more than one joint secretary.

In addition to that, the study committee at that time suggested the provision of additional secretaries in constitutional bodies and bodies with more than two joint secretaries. The committee suggested making a legal and policy arrangement to promote those who have reached the age of 50, who have not been prosecuted and who have a clean image to the post of secretary.

In its report, the committee said, ‘It seems appropriate to improve the number of provincial ministries by assigning the gazetted first class or similar employees of different services according to the cluster system.